Archive for the ‘socialism’ Category

The Little Red Hen

– by Doug Smith –

attributed: Summit Sun 8 July 1971

Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who scratched about and uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her barnyard neighbors and said, “If we work together and plant this wheat, we will have some fine bread to eat. Who will help me plant the wheat?” “Not I,” said the cow. “Not I,” said the duck. “Not I,” said the goose. “Then I will,” said the little red hen, and she did.

The wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. “Who will help me reap my wheat?” asked the little red hen. “Not I,” said the duck. “Out of my classification,” said the pig. “I’d lose my seniority” said the cow. “I’d lose my unemployment insurance,” said the goose.

Then it came time to bake the bread. “That’s overtime for me,” said the cow. I’m a dropout and never learned how,” said the duck. “I’d lose my welfare benefits,” said the pig. “If I’m the only one helping, that’s discrimination,” said the goose.

“Then I will,” said the little red hen. And she did.

She baked five loaves of fine bread and held them all up for the neighbors to see. They all wanted some, demanded a share. But the red hen said, “No, I can rest for a while and eat the five loaves myself.”

For when the farmer came, he said, “You must not be greedy, little red hen. Look at the oppressed cow. Look at the disadvantaged duck. Look at the under-privileged pig. Look at the less fortunate goose. You are guilty of making second-class citizens of them.”

“But….but,” said the little red hen. “I earned the bread.”

“Exactly,” said the wise farmer. “That is the wonderful free enterprise system; anybody in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. You should be happy to have this freedom. In other barnyards, you’d have to give all five loaves to the farmer. Here you give four loaves to your suffering neighbors.” And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked: “I am grateful. I am grateful.”

New Every Morning – Daily Devotional – Dr. D. James Kennedy

The Bible And Economics – April 13

For even when we were with you, we commanded you this:
If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.2 Thessalonians 3:10

Do you dread going to work or tending house, viewing labor as a curse on your life because of the Fall? Well, it isn’t. Before sin ever touched this earth, God commanded Adam to tend the garden. God created us to have meaningful employment and to earn our keep. And He created a context in which we could live and prosper.

God reveals that context in His Word. While the Bible isn’t an economics textbook, it does say a great deal about how we can thrive. The Bible says that if a person does not work, that person shall not eat. (Of course, this principle doesn’t refer to a person unable to work.) The Eighth Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” makes it clear that we can own property, ruling out certain economic systems such as communism. In fact, I believe free enterprise is a biblical principle. Most people didn’t understand this until 1776, when Adam Smith wrote his famous book on economics, The Wealth of Nations. This book sparked the worldwide spread of capitalism. Before that time, most people lived a hand-to-mouth existence, spending about ninety percent of their income on food. But between 1800 and 1850, wages quadrupled as people pursued scriptural economic principles, and from 1850 to 1900, wages quadrupled again. This was especially true in America, where free enterprise had its freest reign.

But in this century, we’ve turned from some of those biblical principles. A misapplication of the concepts of justice and charity have created in our nation “social justice” (in other words, welfare). Public welfare is neither just nor charitable, because it forcibly takes money from one person and gives it to another. Public welfare also tempts people to take advantage of public money and to fight for as much of it as they can get. It destroys private charity and creates vice and laziness.

I challenge you to apply biblical principles of economics in your life and to cultivate a responsible work ethic. Resolve today that whatever task comes your way, you’ll work for God’s honor and glory. As you do, He will bless you for your obedience.
America will last until the populace discovers it can vote for itself largess [gifts or handouts] out of the public treasury.ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Stealth Unionization

IBD: 19 Nov. 2009

Labor: While the focus was on card-check legislation that would allow workers to be bullied into union membership, a federal board has quietly changed a rule to let unions organize without a majority of workers.

The National Mediation Board, an agency charged with resolving labor disputes in the rail and airline industries, has approved a rule shift that heavily favors unions.

Stealth Socialism

Health Reform: Congress’ planned health care revolution will be bad enough without a government-run option. With it, Euro-style socialism becomes inevitable. It’s time for a bipartisan way out of this disaster.

Last week proved Democrats want as much big government control as possible in the huge medical sector of the economy. The president’s advisers said he’s still committed to a government-run public option, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lined up three versions of such a plan and the Senate majority leader announced a public plan with a state opt-out.

Why is the public option back at all? It seemed dead after a study earlier this year indicated such a plan would mean private health insurers could lose nearly 120 million customers.

Described as being “prized by liberals as a fundamental pillar of reform,” the public option is really a way to put capitalistic America on a path toward socialized medicine.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a longtime co-sponsor of single-payer legislation, said in July, “I think the best way we’re gonna get single-payer, the only way, is to have a public option and demonstrate its strength and its power.” Why not just enact single-payer? “We don’t have the votes for it,” Frank replied.

The public option was conceived by leftist organizations such as the Campaign for America’s Future years ago because polls showed the American people liked private health insurance and would never go for a direct government takeover. Ex-Sen. John Edwards’ presidential campaign embraced it as “stealth single-payer,” and the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama followed suit.

Renegade Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine may be the one to thank if this new medical entitlement becomes reality, at a time when government accountants warn that Washington is spending the country toward a fiscal doomsday.

The president is reportedly smitten with Snowe’s public option “trigger” — an idea that comes down to this: If private insurers charge customers more than Uncle Sam dictates as they deal with all the new costs Washington imposes, the federal government will become their unfair competitor and wreck the private health insurance industry.

With or without a government-run option, the Democrats’ radical transformation of the greatest health care system in the world still means reams of new regulations on private insurers, including the likely end of anti-trust protection.

It means fines for those — especially the young — who won’t buy what will become high-priced insurance. It may slap uncooperative employers with an 8% payroll tax. And it may impose a $460 billion, 5.4% income tax surcharge sure to kill private sector jobs.

It’s time for new ideas, like the expanded private coverage options of the Patients’ Choice Act, backed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Richard Burr, R-N.C.

As Ryan warns, the federal government would run health care “with the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the Post Office and the incompetence of Katrina.”

Please read this special report from Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries Washington, D.C., Correspondent and then call your senators and representative. The Capitol Hill switchboard is (202) 224-3121. (Click these links to identify your senators andrepresentative.)

From Robert Knight:

Folks, in my nearly 20 years in Washington, I have seen a lot of deception and chicanery. But what’s unfolding now takes my breath away. It should raise the blood pressure of every freedom-loving American. The Democrats are still trying to ram through a national health care takeover despite being told over and over by Americans that we do not want it.

The Senate Finance Committee is poised to vote on a massive health care reform bill on Tuesday authored by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). A glaring, outrageous fact unreported by the media is that the bill has been kept secret. No one actually knows what’s in it – not even senators, who will be told to vote for it. Entire sections will be added later. That’s what happened with the House version. Nobody read the bill, and75 “phantom” amendments were added after the vote. A similar maneuver happened in the Senate, when a key committee approved another version of a sweeping health care bill in July without seeing the text. Actual language was unveiled months later in September.

Senators will be voting on something that does not even exist yet.

Even the Congressional Budget Office was operating without actual text when it issued a report this week saying the Baucus plan would cost under $900 billion instead of more than a trillion. When the CBO crunched the detailed, 1,018-page House version this summer, it reported that it would cost far more than President Obama claimed. Obama then broke precedent and summoned the CBO director to the White House for a “talk.” Now the CBO says the Senate bill will cost less. They think. They hope. They speculate.

What’s more, CNSNews.com reports that an aide to Sen. Harry Reid said that current debates may be irrelevant because an entirely different version might be inserted into an unrelated House tax bill, HR 1586.This is a way of getting around the constitutional requirement that all tax bills originate in the House. Sen. Reid wants a “public option” that would ensure a “single-payer” system, which means socialized medicine.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week that she has the votes necessary to ram through a bill with “the public option” as soon as it comes back to her chamber.

“The real bill will be another 1,000-page, trillion dollar experiment… that vastly expands the role of the federal government in the personal health care decisions of every American,” warns Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky).

On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer would not rule out the possibility that the House would vote for identical Senate language, thus avoiding the bill going to a House-Senate conference committee for more examination and debate and getting it quickly to President Obama’s desk.

Stunned by the August town halls, TEA parties and the massive Sept. 12 taxpayer rally in Washington, liberals know the window is closing on their plan to nationalize one sixth of America’s economy and put your health care decisions in the hands of government bureaucrats.So they are working in the dark to ram this through before most Americans find out.

Some details have slipped out:

—Do what we say, not what we do–Congress has exempted itself from mandatory coverage provisions that they want to impose on their fellow citizens.

—Different tax rates for people in different states.The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel reports: “Majority Leader Harry Reid …worked out a deal by which the federal government will pay all of his home state’s additional Medicaid expenses for the next five years. Under the majority leader’s very special formula, only three other states – Oregon, Rhode Island and Michigan – qualify for this perk.” This means that Americans in other states would subsidize constituents of Harry Reid and some of his political friends. A dozen Democratic governors have come out against the Medicaid mandate as a budget buster, but Reid is covering his own political interests.

Are you angry yet?

Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.) took to the floor of the House during the earlier spendathon and said the nation is now in the grip of “gangster government,” in which powerful interests are raiding the treasury to ensure their own continued power. The health care “reform” bill is more of the same, but even more dangerous.

The liberal “mainstream” media are providing cover for all this. None is asking to see the bill language. They will get away with it unless Americans speak out now and let them know in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and tyrannical.

Please, for the sake of your children and grandchildren and your own ability to choose your insurance and your doctor, take a moment. Call your congressman and senators and let them know you want them to start over with a transparent process and consider real, workable reforms, such as curbing malpractice awards and making it easier for people to buy insurance out of state. Tell your friends and neighbors that they need to act, too.